In the following interview for About.com, Niffenegger talks to Flanagan about her literary and musical influences, as well as the origin of the idea for The Time Traveler's Wife.

Audrey Niffenegger is a writer, artist, and professor in the Interdisciplinary Book Arts MFA Program at the Columbia College Chicago Center for Book and Paper Arts. She is the author of The Time Traveler's Wife, the inventive and unconventionally rendered tale of Clare, a luminously beautiful artist, and Henry, a time-traveler. In our interview, Ms. Niffenegger discussed her art and writing, among other things.

Mark Flanagan: Can you tell us about your work as an artist and art professor?

Audrey Niffenegger: I teach writing to visual artists. We concentrate on merging and combining text and images, by means of artist's books, comics, installations, etc. I also teach letterpress printing, lithography, intaglio, fine edition book making, a seminar...